Embracing Innovation Volume 6:
Technology, research and design thinking in creative practice

CraftACT Craft and Design Centre Gallery

Opening 6.00pm Thursday 21 July 2016

The sixth in the series, Embracing Innovation, captures innovation in the creative arts, with a particular focus on craft and design. Craft practitioners and designer makers are continually embracing digital technologies, research and design thinking, with innovation and advances in these areas changing the way they engage, design and create. The exhibition showcases makers and designers who are exploring these new cutting-edge technologies and thinking in their practice.

Phase Change Tiles : CAD tiles , 31C Phase Change Material, projected heatmap.

Mehrnoush Latifi and Judith Glover (RMIT SIAL and Industrial Design), Stephen Barrass (University of Canberra Digital Design and Media Arts)

A set of tiles (3 x 3) in a square formation to represent a wall section. These are made of slip­cast porcelain with 31C Phase Change Material (PCM) inside. The PCM increases the heat mass of the tiles up to 10 times, so they are effectively 10 x thicker. A video projected on the tiles shows how the air moves across the tiles at a micro­ climate level.

A set of porcelain tiles embedded with a phase change material (PCM). These ceramic tile prototypes were digitally designed using computer CAD to create a 3d surface to enhance airflow. The CAD file was then computer CNC milled wax which was used to cast a 2 part mould for slip-casting the hollow porcelain tiles. A Phase Change Material with melting point 31C is inserted in the tiles cavity for enhancing the thermal capacity of heat storage and insulation of the prototypes. Phase Change material absorbs the heat hitting the surface of the tiles placed on the exterior of a building.